


neglect

by howtobeinconspicuous



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-06
Updated: 2012-06-06
Packaged: 2017-11-07 02:44:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/426027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howtobeinconspicuous/pseuds/howtobeinconspicuous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>neglect |niˈglekt|<br/>verb [ with obj. ]</p>
<p>fail to care for properly: the old churchyard has been sadly neglected.<br/>• not pay proper attention to; disregard: you neglect our advice at your peril.<br/>• [ with infinitive ] fail to do something: he neglected to write to her.</p>
<p>noun<br/>the state or fact of being uncared for: animals dying through disease or neglect.<br/>• the action of not taking proper care of someone or something: she was accused of child neglect.<br/>• failure to do something: he was reported for neglect of duty.</p>
<p>neglect; abandon, disregard, ignore, fail, omit, forget, disrepair, dilapidation, disuse</p>
            </blockquote>





	neglect

It was late when Arthur turned the key in the lock. He knew – he knew – Merlin would be mad, because why wouldn’t he be? He expected loud and fierce and dark and fiery, but as he walked into their shared apartment, there was nothing. It was dark and he instinctively knew that Merlin wasn’t there. He didn’t need to go into every room to know that the flat was empty, because everything screamed hollowvacantbareblankvoid.

Well, he didn’t need to go into every room to check, but Arthur did anyway.

When his search proved futile – as he knew it would – he walked into the kitchen and went to the fridge. He found a bottle of beer and got a bottle opened from the drawer and took the bottle to the living room and sat down on the sofa.

He put his head in his hands and he didn’t cry. When he was done not crying, he took a long gulp of beer and reached into his pocket for his phone. There were three missed calls – all from several hours ago, and one text. One text, from fourty-nine minutes ago.

_Does five years not mean all that much to you? Because I know you hate mushy romantic stuff, but I thought even you might care about today. I don’t know why I really expected you to though._

And, as Arthur sighed and put his phone back on the table, he realised that this was a lot worse than shouting and broken plates because this cold disappointment sat in his stomach like fury didn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to darcy (earpervert) for kicking me into action and making me write again. she's majorly awesome and is probably the best person i've ever met (because we've MET now). so yeah she's cool and this is for her because she made me write it.


End file.
